The stem and leaves

A typical herbarium specimen consists of a stem or twig to which the leaves, flowers and fruit are attached.

The stem is securely anchored to the herbarium sheet with glue, twine, wire or adhesive tape.

The leaves have obvious characters for identification (stucture, arrangement) and have useful identifying features (hairs, scales, glands, veins, etc.) on both surfaces; in preparation and mounting care is taken to ensure that both leaf surfaces ar exposed.

Stem and leaf characters by themselves are usually not enough to allow a plant to be fully identified and additional characters from the flowers and fruit are needed in most cases.